David Ogilvy

Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

I did not feel ‘evil’ when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.

The consumer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.

Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.

The relationship between a manufacturer and his advertising agency is almost as intimate as the relationship between a patient and his doctor. Make sure that you can life happily with your prospective client before you accept his account.

Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything.

What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?

Well, I think that there’s a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you’re likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.

I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Oprah.

Determine to do some thinking for yourself. Don’t live entirely upon the thoughts of others. Don’t be an automaton.

Should I give up my career at this point in my life… and put all my marbles in Laura’s [Nyro] basket?

No matter what his position or experience in life, there is in everyone more latent than developed ability; far more unused than used power.

No one loses anything by raising wages as soon as he is able. It has always paid us. Low wages are the most costly any employer can pay. It is like using low-grade material–the waste makes it very expensive in the end. There is no economy in cheap labor or cheap material. The hardest thing I ever had to do was to reduce wages. I think we were the last big company to come to it. Now I am mighty glad that wages are climbing again.

[On his first job in the mailroom of William Morris a casting agency] It was the first time in the my life that I thought ‘I can do that.’

Mark my word: A combination airplane and motor car is coming.

As far as competition is concerned, that must continue. But we must learn what competition really is. It is a striving to attain the best. To throttle it would mean to stop all progress. Certain men do not need to compete. They are pioneers.

Without hustle, talent will only carry you so far.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No.1.